Travelogues

An hour’s flight from the urban cacophony of Ho Chi Minh City lies the paradise of Phu Quoc Island, an idyllic Vietnamese inlay in the Gulf of Thailand. Unlike the charming yet commercialized village of Hoi An or the overwhelming bustle of motorcycles in Saigon, Phu Quoc is a low-key fishing island surrounded by shimmering…

The first thing that caught my eye in Yogyakarta–one of Java, Indonesia’s largest cities, known locally as Jogja–was its brilliantly eclectic nature; the people, architecture, food, and culture are fascinatingly varied. This seemingly endless diversity is a modern reflection of Indonesia’s deeply layered history and makes for a thrilling place to explore for the unexpected.…

It’s somewhat of a local secret, the White Beach. No one can tell you exactly where to go or how to find it, but they let you know that it’s paradise, and it exists in an area where it’s hard to separate that dream from the reality.

When Anton Repponen woke up in the back seat of his 4×4 off-road Toyota, it was still dark outside. He wasn’t quite sure where he was — somewhere within the Brazilian state of Ceará, surely – perhaps a few dozen kilometers outside of Fortaleza, perhaps a bit more.

A quick turnaround and the looming jet lag that would entail curtailed any direction or planning of what exactly I would do once I arrived in Lisbon. I hit the streets in a daze, fueled on espresso and pastries, camera in tow, and was immediately struck by how arresting everything was.

As sunrise lights the huge cliffs to my west, turning them from a dull grey into a golden yellow ripple, the small village and the guesthouse I sit at is lost in the immensity of jagged peaks, ridgelines and forest as far as the eye can see.

It needs to be somewhere challenging. Somewhere that’s going to test my comfort level and require me to get a little dirty. After all, without a little grit, you’re not trying as hard. You’re not learning as much. You’re not fully activated.

“In the backseat you can find out who you are and decide what you should do.” This may be true, although I like to start any road trip as a third wheel with much less pressure to become rather than be.